Of course, whether the fish-men would be able to coexist peacefully with humans ten years from now, Wood couldn't say. After all, even though he was a time traveler, he couldn't foresee a future that had already been altered.
He had said everything he could and done everything he could. The fish-men had helped him raid Enies Lobby, and in return, he had indirectly saved Queen Otohime's life. That was the extent of what he could offer.
Now, on the second half of the Grand Line, the route known as the New World, a medium-sized two-masted pirate ship was sailing smoothly on the calm seas.
"These royals from Fish-Man Island sure are stingy! Where's the gratitude they talked about? Why didn't they give us something useful instead of this pile of junk?" Wood grumbled.
Because he had gotten along so well with the residents of Fish-Man Island and had helped them considerably, the Ryugu Kingdom had showered them with farewell gifts as they departed. Having heard rumors about the vast wealth of Ryugu Palace, Wood had been grinning ear to ear when he heard they were preparing gifts for him.
But when Queen Otohime ordered her soldiers to load the gifts onto Wood's ship, his smile quickly froze on his face. The supposedly lavish gifts from the wealthy Ryugu Palace weren't the gold and jewels he had imagined. Instead, they were met with a boatload of various seafood.
According to Queen Otohime, these were specialties of Fish-Man Island, including some ingredients that were the stuff of a chef's dreams.
Staring at the ship's hold, packed to the brim with seafood, Wood wore a deadpan expression. The so-called "specialties" were far from what he had envisioned. This was Fish-Man Island, after all, and the gifts were from the royal family. Shouldn't the "specialties" have been something more along the lines of fist-sized pearls?
Even if they didn't have any treasure, sending him a couple of beautiful mermaids as attendants would have been a nice gesture. But a boatload of seafood? What were they supposed to do with that?
Sure, some of it might be "dream ingredients," but so what? It wasn't like they had a top-tier chef on board. In fact, the best cooks on the ship were Wood and Robin, and their culinary skills were only good enough to make sure the food was properly cooked. As for the others, like Ruth, their cooking often resulted in half-raw dishes that were barely recognizable as food.
"Originally, I wanted to give you some treasure as a token of gratitude," Queen Otohime had said with a smile. "But Tiger mentioned that you're not ordinary pirates, and you might not care much for treasures. After careful consideration, I decided these gifts would be more appropriate."
The memory of Queen Otohime's words made Wood want to strangle Tiger. So it was all Tiger's fault that the queen's gift had been so underwhelming!
Wood had wanted to tell Queen Otohime that they were just ordinary, lowly pirates with no lofty ideals about treating gold as dirt. But the image he had built up was too grand, and when he tried to say as much, Queen Otohime just thought he was joking.
"Captain, where are we heading next?" Ruth asked.
After entering the New World, their log pose now pointed to three different islands, and they could choose their next destination from these options.
"We're heading to the most populated and prosperous island among these three. We need to sell off this seafood as quickly as possible before it spoils," Wood replied.
Queen Otohime had given them quite a few specialties, but seafood didn't keep for long. If they didn't sell it quickly, it would just go to waste.
"Are we really going to sell seafood? But we're pirates, not fishermen…" Ruth said, stunned. Ever since he had joined Wood's crew, Ruth felt like his life had gone from bad to worse.
Back when he was in the Navy, he had been a minor figure, but at least he was a Navy lieutenant. After joining Wood, he became a pirate, and recently, they had barely managed to scrape by. Now, things had gotten even worse. Their esteemed pirate crew was about to start selling seafood just to make ends meet.
"Who says pirates can't sell seafood? If we don't sell it, are you going to feed us? Queen Otohime said some of this seafood is considered 'dream ingredients,' and leaving it to spoil on our ship would be a waste. Why not sell it for some Berries?" Wood retorted.
If he had any other options, Wood wouldn't be selling seafood, but their crew was running out of funds. If they didn't find some way to make money soon, they wouldn't even be able to afford to keep sailing—they'd likely starve to death in the New World.
They had once had a few million Berries in their coffers, but all that money had been left on the original Dark Maru, which had been confiscated by the World Government after their raid on Enies Lobby. Knowing Spandam, there was no way he would have left that money untouched. Even if Spandam hadn't taken it, the money had likely been lost when the World Government bombarded their ship, sending the Dark Maru and everything on it to the bottom of the sea.
It was only thanks to Tom's generosity in building them the "Dark Maru II" free of charge that they even had a ship to sail. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been able to set sail at all.
Ever since they had left Fish-Man Island, their diet had consisted almost entirely of seafood, and now they couldn't even open their mouths without the overwhelming taste of fish. Wood decided it was time to find a market to offload the seafood and improve their situation.
As it turned out, pirates could indeed sell seafood. Despite Ruth's initial reluctance, once they docked at a bustling island and started selling at the local market, the sheer amount of money they made completely changed his attitude.
Wood, a renowned swordsman, had turned into a fishmonger, while Robin, a historian, had become the cashier.
The seafood from Fish-Man Island, harvested from 10,000 meters deep, was worth far more than they had anticipated. Some of the so-called "dream ingredients" fetched prices as high as several million Berries per kilogram!
The substantial earnings left Wood and his crew with mixed feelings. They had wasted nearly half of the seafood from Queen Otohime's gift, and now they realized just how valuable it had been.
If they had known earlier how much the seafood was worth, they would have endured hunger for a few more days rather than waste it. That was money they had thrown away!
Their venture into fishmongering proved incredibly successful. By selling just half of the seafood, Wood's crew managed to rake in nearly two hundred million Berries!
This also meant that they had practically squandered another two hundred million Berries back on the ship.
Ironically, they seemed to have a better future as fishmongers than as pirates. After all, they had scoured the seas for treasure and had barely amassed a hundred million Berries. Now, after selling some seafood, they had made twice that amount in no time.
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P/S: If you are interested, you can read up to chapter 320+ at p@treon.com/Betek and change @ to a